In a Pickle
by Mugetsu Ookamiza
Summary: Yukio gets stressed out by a hyper Rin and decides to take his work elsewhere, but he winds up going from frying pan to fire as Shura decides to amuse herself at his expense.


**In a Pickle**

Yukio was annoyed. Okay, so annoyed was putting it mildly. His nerves were getting frayed almost to the breaking point – that was closer to putting things as honestly as possible.

First he had to leave Rin alone in the dorm to get some space because his elder twin was being more of a pest than normal. He blamed it all on Shima, who had decided to goad Rin into taking a dare to down two extra large energy drinks. The way Rin was practically bouncing around the room made him believe if a normal human had downed that much they'd probably be suffering a potentially fatal arrhythmia from it. Finally it drove him batty enough that trying to get work done while dealing with it directly was something he just couldn't deal with. So he set Rin off to cook a big supper for the both of them while he went to find a free room in the cram school to get his work done.

Once he got there he found only more reason to be annoyed as a fiery haired exorcist he knew wandered into the same room, sat down on the floor against the door, and started verbally poking at him. It was as if she didn't even notice how frazzled his nerves already were or she thought "drive Yukio batshit insane" was a fun game to play.

He had just gotten to the point where he could partially zone her out when he heard something new, the sound of something being set on the floor and the pop of a lid being opened for the first time. He turned to look, curiosity getting the better of him for a moment.

Shura had managed to pull out a jar of pickles and opened it, preparing to pull one out. She noticed him looking and grinned mischievously. "Wanna help me eat 'em 'r just watch?"

He adjusted his glasses as he stared at her, "I'm trying to get work done, I don't have time to snack." He pondered mentioning to her that eating here wasn't very professional, but he'd long ago learned to pick his battles with her, at least some of the time.

"Y' sure?" she drawled, with a look on her face that didn't make Yukio feel particularly comfortable. She was definitely up to something.

"Yes, I'm sure," he firmly told her, trying not to grit his teeth as he answered her.

"Suit yerself," she said as she swiftly pulled out one an looked at it. She casually started licking the brine that dribbled off the pickle and onto her fingers off, then moved on to licking the brine off the pickle itself. The way her eyelids dropped a bit and the little soft noises she made clearly indicated she was already enjoying that delicious pickle.

Yukio froze in mortification before tearing his eyes away. He faced the paperwork on the table in front of him and tried to ignore the little sounds coming from where the other exorcist sat, and the fact that where he was sitting he barely needed to move his head before he could see her in his peripheral vision. He fidgeted slightly trying not to think about what she was doing so much, not wanting to let her get a reaction – or at least a visible reaction – from him.

He was just starting to manage blocking her out again when, to his immense relief, he heard the distinct sound of someone taking a bite out of a nice, crunchy pickle. Finally, she was actually working on eating that pickle and not making those damn distractible noises anymore. However, he soon learned his sense of relief came far too early.

He flinched, trying not to make it too noticeable, and slowly turned around. There she sat with the pickle in her mouth sucking on it. "What the heck are you doing?" he asked, trying not to sound too panicky.

She removed the pickle from her mouth and grinned devilishly at him. "Doncha know if ya don't suck out th' brine it gets... messy..."

He swallowed as she went back to draining the pickle in front of him and barely managed to tear his eyes away. This was just too much, even for her. He instinctively started trying to, as subtly as possible, find the best way out so he could leave with as much dignity as he could muster. To his chagrin and horror the only way out was the door she was sitting up against.

Shura laughed a bit and pulled the now limp pickle away from her lips. "And now for the best part," she grinned, crunching noisily down on it. After her previous actions this nearly made Yukio wince in response, and he wondered if she'd intended to get this kind of rise out of him after the slightly more literal rise her earlier actions had caused.

Squaring his shoulders he steeled himself to wait it out, after all, she was almost done. But it wasn't over yet; she pulled another one out and waved it at him, another wily grin on her face. "Ya sure ya don' want one?"

He felt his stomach drop as he looked at her and turned away, not even answering, hopefully before she noticed his reaction and the fact his eye had started twitching. Just as he feared he heard her starting to repeat the process. So he did his his best, trying to calm himself and act as if nothing was outside of normal. He focused on the work in front of him and tried to keep any mental images from forming in his head.

It wasn't long before he heard the tell tale crunch again and she began draining the second pickle. He could have sworn this time she was making even MORE noise with this one and felt a rising panic. He needed to get out and away from her and those accursed brine-soaked cucumbers.

Rising from his seat, careful not to stand too straight, he stalked over to the door, roughly pushed Shura aside, and briskly walked out, not changing his pace one bit even as he heard her laugh loudly behind him. He wondered if putting up with a hypercaffeinated Rin would have been a better choice, or just as bad but in a different way.

A little while later he'd walked back into the dorm and passed his older twin, still without changing his stride. "Yo, Yukio!" he called out with a huge grin on his face. "Supper's ready, come and get it!"

"Sorry, brother, I have to take a shower first."

* * *

**author's notes:**  
the inspiration for this fic came from an old friend who also, years back, wrote a fic involving eating pickles. also part of the inspiration is the fact I adore how Shura teases Yukio. I do feel _slightly_ embarrassed having written this fic, but I have to admit it was pretty fun to write (and I've never laughed so much white writing a fanfic before). I hope you enjoyed reading this at least as much as I did writing this.


End file.
